Sports

Denver Nuggets coach George Karl says Christmas game a show of respect

Posted:
12/26/2012 12:01:00 AM MST

Updated:
12/26/2012 10:14:39 AM MST

Nuggets point guard Andre Miller tries to score against the Clippers' Lamar Odom during the first half of Tuesday night's game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Victor Decolongon, Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES — Sure, they could have been opening presents with the kids, or simply enjoying a day at home. But Tuesday morning the Nuggets got another gentle reminder of their task at hand before they took on the challenge of playing yet another road game.

"I told them this morning this is an opportunity," coach George Karl said before the Nuggets met the Clippers at the Staples Center. "This is not something to complain about, this is an opportunity.

"To play on Christmas, it's a way of respect that you're one of the entertaining teams in basketball. Sometimes we complain that we don't get a lot of respect. Well, we've got four games to gain some respect real quick."

No kidding. When the Nuggets returned to Denver, they strangely had the Lakers, who won their fifth consecutive game in same building earlier Tuesday, waiting for them.

After hosting the Lakers on Wednesday, the Nuggets are back on the road Friday at Dallas and Saturday at Memphis.

By that point, the Nuggets will have played 22 of their first 32 games on the road. No matter how out of whack that may put any gauge on where his team stands, Karl sticks with his Doug Moe formula of road wins vs. home losses. The Nuggets entered Tuesday's game plus-6 in that category.

"The minimum we're going to be on Jan. 1 is plus-5," Karl said. "I thought if we were plus-6 or plus-7, it was a celebration. So I'm right now close to a celebration. We've got to figure out how to win two, three of these next four games, and I would take two.

Advertisement

"Our team is playing at a good level right now."

Playing vs. Paul. Ty Lawson, who missed the second half of Saturday's win over Charlotte because of a sore Achilles tendon, was back in the starting lineup Tuesday, presumably meaning he was ready for the challenge of taking on Clippers guard Chris Paul.

But injury or not, that duty wasn't about to go to Lawson alone. Karl indicated that Lawson would get some help from 6-foot-9 Corey Brewer and from 6-6 Andre Iguodala.

And as important as it might be to slow Paul's offensive game, Karl seemed to be more wary of Paul's propensity to disrupt offenses.

"I think he's the defensive player of the year," Karl said of Paul. "He's an incredible defender. He hits the ball, causes pressure, fouls all the time without getting a whistle." Phil Collin, Special to The Post

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.